Galvanic isolation is a technique for isolating portions of electrical systems. Electrical current is prevented from moving directly from one portion of the electrical system to another portion. Energy or information may still be exchanged between the portions of the electrical system by using, for example, capacitive coupling, inductive coupling, magnetic coupling, optical coupling, and radio frequency coupling.
Galvanic isolation may be used in situations where two or more electric circuits need to communicate, but the voltage and/or current in at least one of the circuits is at levels that may be hazardous to the other circuits.